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I wanted to let all of you know that with the help of some of our Temple members I recently applied for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to make some security improvements at the Temple. I am happy to announce that the Temple has been granted $74,000. We are planning to add video surveillance all around the building, and replacing some of our light fixtures. We will be replacing the doors at the north and south entrances of the upper level of our facility, and we will be adding new hardware to all of our entrances including panic bars so that you can exit the building in case of an emergency. We will be adding programmable key card scanners, as well as an automatic door opener for greater handicap accessibility at our Grand Avenue entrance.

These new features will make our building more secure, but it will take staff and members of our congregation working together to truly ensure the safety of everyone in our building. We recently held a “town hall” style meeting to discuss how we can continue to enhance security at the Temple. At this meeting we discussed limiting access to the Temple for all events and making sure that we had properly trained staff and volunteers present at all events to monitor the doors during the times they would be open.

Taking the feedback we received at this meeting, our Board of Trustees will be meeting in November
to discuss the security policies that we want to implement. These policies will cause some inconvenience as our members get used to the changes. For example if you forget something in your car during a service, you will have to be mindful of the fact that the door will be locked when you exit the building. You will have to let someone know to let you back in the building. That will be inconvenient, but limiting, controlling, and monitoring access to our building is one of the best ways to ensure the safety of everyone inside, and that benefit far outweighs the inconvenience.

Could a violent incident happen here? I hope and pray that it doesn’t, but shortly after I wrote my original draft of this article I saw the news about Tree of Life Synagogue. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see that once again a faith community was the target of an act of violence, and it was very clear that this incident occurred because anti-semitism is very much on the rise in our world.

We cannot change how people will see us, we cannot change the fact that some people will hate us, but we can make sure that we continue to be a light in this world. We can make sure that everyone who enters our doors is secure and safe. I’m very proud of the fact that we have been taking proactive steps to ensure the safety and security of everyone in our building, and I know that working together we will do everything we can to ensure that Temple B’nai Jeshurun is a safe place for all who enter.

With a broken heart, I attended the prayer vigil at Tifereth Israel to mourn 11 lives lost at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It’s estimated that over 1,000 people attended the vigil with 500 people filling the sanctuary and lobby area and another 500 standing outside and encircling the synagogue. Those who attended listened to religious leaders from across the area show their support for the Jewish community. Rabbi Kaufman’s emotional and compelling speech was well received. Speeches from Rabbi Barton, Rabbi Jacobson as well as deacons, reverends, pastors and an imam expressed their unity against violence. The vigil ended with all of the religious leaders standing at the front of the sanctuary singing “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”

As all of us come to grips with this latest tragedy, it’s important to know that Temple and the entire Jewish community will continue to discuss the next steps in how we can better secure our facilities. Although there are no easy answers to this challenging topic, we continue to take steps to assess our current security at Temple and how we can improve it.

Both Rabbi Kaufman and David Muenchrath recently held a meeting open to all congregants about security and discussed possible options to prevent unwanted visitors from entering our building. In addition, we recently purchased and will soon install a monitoring system that will oversee our entrances. David recently applied for and was awarded a federal grant that focuses exclusively on security enhancements to our facility. All of these examples are measures we are taking to enhance security.

Our Board is committed to addressing the security challenges that face us and will begin outlining and adopting policies that will ensure the safety of our congregants and guests. Any new policies are meant to ensure a safe environment at Temple. Like anything new, it will take time for any new policy to become the new normal. All of us are part of the solution and we all need to work together to ensure a secure and welcoming congregation.

I appreciate your patience and support as we continue to address this challenging issue.

I stand before you, a descendant of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Warfare, economic hardship, and
persecution forced them to leave lands where their ancestors had lived for generations. My three-year-old
grandmother crossed borders guided by her nine-year-old sister, smuggled out beneath blankets by their mother in the back of wagon, under the cover of darkness, all afraid for their lives.

Eventually, they made it safely to America. America is a nation of immigrants, many of whom fled religious persecution in search of freedom. We are a nation who so prized our welcoming nature as to enshrine it on the Statue of Liberty in the words of Emma Lazarus’ “New Colossus,” words that greeted my grandparents as they came to Ellis Island:

These words do not come from nowhere. They are based on the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 58: This is the fast I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness and untie
the cords of lawlessness; to let the oppressed go free and break off every yoke.

It is to share your food with the wretched and take the poor into your home;
When you see the naked, clothe them and do not ignore your own kin.
Then will your light burst through like the dawn and your healing will spring up quickly.
[When] your higher-self leads you, the weight of God is behind you.
Thus [now], when you call out, God will answer;

When you call out God will say: Hineni, here I am.

We are all God’s children. Jewish tradition tells us that we are all created in God’s image. Sometimes, too often if you ask me, that image is reflected with more than a bit of distortion, emphasizing the worst aspects of our nature.

We Jews have seen the hate-filled faces before, through many generations in many countries. Too often, historically, the torches of hatred have entered Jewish neighborhoods and set synagogues, businesses, and homes aflame.

We don’t knock down or abandon places where violence has happened. We mop up the blood. We patch the holes in the walls. And we live with the holes in our hearts. In synagogues, like the one in Pittsburgh and so many others through the ages, we have stood holding the Torah, our tree of life, in those now sanctified places where people died, Kedush HaShem, martyrs in sanctification of God’s name. And God is right there with us, as we return the next day, and offer the same words of prayer and song, of peace and love, and of thanksgiving, words that have inspired generations.

Most of the time, historically, it has only been a small percentage of the local population that was involved in the violence. The vast majority of people, good people, stood by and watched.

Maurice Ogden wrote a poem called “The Hangman.” It’s a bit long for me to read to its theme is very important. Ogden’s poem is about a Hangman who comes into a town and begins to single out people for hanging. He begins with the weakest minority and then keeps dividing and dividing, singling out and singling out, until the very last person is finally hung upon the gallows.

The one who did nothing to offend, nothing to get in the way, of the one promoting violence and hatred of the other, of the immigrants, of racial or political minorities, of Jews or of other faiths. We will not be like the Hangman’s faithful servant. We will not stand by and allow age-old hatreds against Jews to rise again unchallenged. We will not allow hatreds of any kind to spread.

At the vigil, it was wonderful and, oh so appreciated, to see so many people there, over 1,000, including at least 150 members of the clergy representing numerous faiths, to support us and to have heard from so many who reached out in care and concern. It is our nature to be there for others in times of need, and we value the caring and support of our friends in the interfaith community in return.

We are a people who care deeply about everyone else. Caring for those who are ill and otherwise in need is a big deal for us. We are a people who see ourselves in Henny Youngman’s brief joke.

“A Jewish woman had two chickens. One got sick, so the woman made chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well.” That is us.

We Jews know that human beings can and too often do act cruelly and inhumanely toward one another. Our tradition tells us that when we find ourselves among those not acting humanely, even if no one else is, our job is to be a mensch, to be a human being. As Hillel taught, “Bamakom sh’ein anashim, hishtadeil li-hiyot ish.” “In a place where there are no human beings, strive to be a person.”Jewish doctors and nurses treated the shooter when he was brought to the hospital. It’s what we do. It’s who we are.

And we expect the best of this country and its leaders.

We are like Moses Seixas, a Jewish congregational president in Newport, Rhode Island, who wrote a
letter to the first President of the United States, George Washington, checking to see if the new nation’s leadership would indeed “give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” And we expect that our government will live up to that ideal to this very day.

We are a people who look at a world filled with violence, a world filled with hatred, a world in which age-old prejudices surface again and again, and believe, we can, with the help of our friends change it. We are a people who believe the words of Theodore Hirzl, “Im tirzu, ein zo aggadah,” “If you will it, it is no dream,” because we have seen our hopes amid the darkness become reality.

Confronted time and time again with opportunities to join the majority, to bring an end to difficulty, oppression, and great suffering, we have remained true to our beliefs.

Before Kings and Priests, before soldiers with swords or guns and mobs with torches, who all wanted us to say something else, believe something else, or simply to vanish from the face of the earth, we bravely uttered, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad!” “Here, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai alone!”

Today, we come together to declare that we will not allow ourselves to remain silent as hatred is offered. We will not be cowed into silence. This is our country. This is our home. May it always be truly both the land of the free and the home of the brave… and let us be brave.

Congratulations to our High School Seniors:Celebrate Their Achievements on Friday, May 4

DAHLIA CALLISTEIN is the much-loved daughter of Gabrielle and Steve Callistein and the fabulous big sister of Benjamin. She simultaneously graduated from the International Baccalaureate Program at Central Academy and Roosevelt High School. She will be attending a small liberal arts college in the Northwest, but is yet undecided on which one! Her varied interests and talents include the visual arts, Spanish, violin, Central American life and culture, intersectional feminism and creative writing.

GABRIELLE ROSE DUBANSKY, daughter of Robert and Peggy Dubansky will graduate from Valley High School on May 27th, 2018. Gabbi has been active in Model UN, Silver Cord, Best Buddies, photography, writing, and art. She will start her first year of Iowa State University this fall and plans to study English, Environmental Science, and Art.

HANNA KAUFMAN, daughter of Rabbi David and Julie, is a senior at Roosevelt High school. She is very involved and is currently in Varsity Show Choir, Acapella Vocal Jazz Choir, Chamber Choir, Bridges 2 Harmony Gospel Choir, Thespians, Color Guard, and Swim Team. She is the choreographer for JV show choir and the student director for Varsity Show Choir as well. Hanna will be attending the University of Iowa’s Honors Program in the fall, and will be majoring in Human Health and Physiology and potentially double majoring in Music Therapy. Hanna would like to be a physical therapist when she graduates. This summer she will be a lifeguard, as her passion is helping others get better.

ELIZABETH KIRSNER, daughter of Richard and Mary Kay Kirsner, will graduate from Roosevelt High School on May 26, 2018. Elizabeth has been active in various musical programs at Roosevelt participating in the Show Choir and is a member of the Chamber Choir and the Bridges 2 Harmony gospel choir. She has played tennis on the Roosevelt woman’s team and is a captain of the 2018 Varsity Women’s Tennis team. In addition to her academic studies, Elizabeth has continued to study the piano and is a previous 1st Place Winner, State Level D2, of the Iowa Music Teachers Association’s competition. Elizabeth plans on studying Environment Science in college with a minor in music performance. She will be attending the University of Iowa in the fall.

KAYLA LAUFENBERG, daughter of Cathie and Lonny Laufenberg and granddaughter of Don and Ronna Pochter, is graduating from Valley High School on May 27, 2018. Kayla plans to attend the University of Iowa in the fall of 2018. Kayla will pursue a degree in nursing. During her years at Valley, Kayla was on the Valley track team. She was also a cheerleader for Valley football, basketball and wrestling.

SPENCER LAUFENBERG, the son of Cathie and Lonny Laufenberg and grandson of Don and Ronna Pochter, is graduating from Valley High School on May 27, 2018. Spencer plans to attend the University of Iowa in the fall of 2018. Spencer will major in Business Administration and Accounting. During his years at Valley, Spencer took numerous business and entrepreneurial classes with business mentors and hands on experience.

COLIN SILVERSTEIN, son of David and Andrea Silverstein will graduate from Waukee High School on May 21, 2018. Colin has participated in Waukee’s APEX program where he studied Finance and Banking as well as Exercise and Sports Science. Colin plays hockey for the Des Moines Oak Leafs. He will attend DMACC Ankeny in the fall.

JOSH SOBEL, son of Maria and Phil, graduated early from from Johnston High School in December of 2017. He enjoyed playing on the tennis and basketball teams at various times during his high school experience. Josh has been successfully maintaining employment at Home Depot for the past two years, and he plans to continue his career there until further notice.

BEN STONE, son of David and Wendy Stone, is a student at Roosevelt High School. During his time there, he was involved in swimming, band, drumline, theater, show choir band, pit orchestra, and National Honor Society. Ben plans on attending the University of Iowa next year and double majoring in Computer Science and Percussion Performance.

Temple B’nai Jeshurun is a welcoming community and one of the efforts we make is to greet those that join us for our Friday night Shabbat Services. Meeting our congregants and visitors “panim el panim” (face to face) fosters a genuine and authentic connection with that person.

Greeters have an opportunity to make a first impression on visitors to our community, showing that someone is present and open to their needs. Greeters contribute to a welcoming congregational culture and lay a foundation for the rest of the congregation to connect and create meaning with one another.

Temple congregants can sign up to be a Shabbat Greeter by clicking on the SignUp.com button below:

Your role as a Shabbat Greeter: To be a Temple ambassador and welcome all those who enter the Temple. At 5:30 pm during the wine and cheese reception, manage the Welcome Table that is positioned at the entrance to the Social Hall. Welcome each individual and have them make a name tag. If the person in visiting for the first time, take a minute to welcome them and obtain basic information using a Temple contact card. During the wine and cheese reception, meet with others and answer any questions they may have or refer them to certain marketing pieces that are available (new members brochure, new members application, complimentary copy of the Bulletin, etc.). At 6:00 pm, walk with individuals to the Sanctuary and assist by handing out Shabbat programs or making sure prayer books are available to all. At the end of services, assist in organizing the Sanctuary and Social Hall for the next day (all Shabbat programs are picked-up, all prayer books are placed in pews, any trash is addressed, etc.).

Thank you for volunteering as a Shabbat Greeter! The Temple Board appreciates your time and effort dedicated to this important role. We hope you enjoy the opportunity to be a Temple ambassador by greeting our Temple guests to Shabbat services.

The Temple community has been invited to join Temple Judah of Cedar Rapids for an Iowa trip to Israel. Rabbi Todd Thalblum of Temple Judah and Rabbi Kaufman plan to go on the trip which will take place June 9-18, 2018. The trip is designed to be an introductory trip to Israel, visiting the major sites. For more information visit the Trip Website, or contact Rabbi Kaufman for more information.

You can now make donations to one of our funds in honor, in memory, for the recovery of, etc on our website. We have also added the ability to purchase Yarhzeit Plaques and a Leaf or a Stone on our Tree of Life.

Check out the new “Giving” menu item to find out more about these opportunities to support the Temple.

Donations/purchases made through our website are processed using PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account to use PayPal. PayPal allows you to use a credit card or debit card to make a donation without a PayPal account.

The Temple depends on the generosity of its congregation and other supporters. You can support the Temple as you celebrate with family and friends; as you remember a loved one; as you pray for the healing of body and spirit; as you show thanks and appreciation; as you share with the less fortunate. The Temple maintains the following Funds:

DESCRIPTION OF FUND

NAME OF FUND

GENERAL:

Supports the current operating expenses of the Temple

Temple General Fund

Supports the purchase of prayerbooks

The Abe and Harriet Friedman Prayerbook Fund

Provides books and periodicals for the Temple Library

The Ben Sanders Memorial Library Fund

Supports the purchase and care of our sacred scrolls

The Donald J. Brown Torah Fund

Provides flowers for services and other special events

The Frankel Flower Fund

CARE & CONCERN

Supports the Rabbi in helping the needs of the congregationand greater Des Moines community

The Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund

Supports the Caring Community in assisting Temple congregants in times of need

The Caring Community Fund

Supports the programs and activities of the Social Action Committee benefiting the Des Moines community

The Social Action Fund

YOUTH

Provides a book of Jewish content for each Bar and Bat Mitzvah

The Belin Trust Fund

Provides scholarships for Temple youth receiving higher education at a Jewish college or university

The Education Loan Fund

Supports general youth activities

The Marks Youth Fund

Provides scholarships to families with children who wish to attend a Jewish camp or a URJ-sponsored trip to Israel

The Ralph Copple Camp Fund

Supports Youth Group activities

The Youth Group Discretionary Fund

PROGRAMMING

Supports the Temple choir

The Cantorial Music Fund

Supports community celebrations such as Passover Seder and Yom Kippur break the fast, as well asTemple anniversary events and Israel related programming

The Oxer and Harris Special Events Fund

Supports non-physical facility needs and programming, as well as personnel needs